


What You (Don't) Need to Hear

by squireofgeekdom



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Aromantic Characters, Aromantic Dipper Pines, Aromantic Stanford Pines, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-21
Updated: 2015-10-21
Packaged: 2018-04-27 10:02:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5044060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squireofgeekdom/pseuds/squireofgeekdom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bill Cipher tells Stanford Pines he's alone. Thirty years later, Ford is able to tell his grand-nephew that he isn't. </p><p>Sometimes, that's all you need to hear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What You (Don't) Need to Hear

**Author's Note:**

> Features some very negative talk about (implied) aromanticism in the first half (from a certain lying, manipulative triangle), but ends happy!

“Well well well,” 

Stanford looks up - he had just been rechecking the calculations, but now he’s surrounded by the void of space, books floating past him. 

And then there’s Bill.

“Looks like you fell asleep again. Not that I don’t appreciate the visit, but not everything can get done in the mindscape, y’know? Anyway, it’s not like I can’t pop in if I need to.”

“Sorry,” Ford says, adjusting his glasses.

“Eh, it’s probably alright. Looked like your pal there made sure nothing caught on fire.” Bill spins around Ford’s head, looking at him from the corner of his one eye. “He’s awfully fond of you, isn’t he?”

“Er, well -” 

“Oh, don’t worry about it, Sixer, _I_ know you don’t feel the same way.”

“I - I -”

“I’ve been in your head -” Bill taps on the side of his head; the sound reverberates throughout the space, echoing louder than it could be meant to. “ - remember?” Bill settles back near the floating chessboard. “So, what’s the deal? Not into guys?”

“Not into - well,” Ford scratches the back of his neck. “I’ve never really felt that way about someone. I guess - I guess I’m not into anyone?” He says, looking up at Bill. 

“Anyone?” Bill laughs. “Well aren’t you a piece of work!” 

Ford tucks his hands behind his back. “You’ve never - you’ve never heard of anything like that before?” He had hoped, somewhere back in the millenia -

“Well, even I can’t see everything.” Bill considers. “But from when I’ve been around, you humans seem pretty universally obsessed with making your little couples. Crazy for it! _You’re_ quite the freak, Sixer!”

Ford threads his six fingers together.

“Hey,” Bill hovers over to him and puts a hand on his shoulder. “It’s alright with _me_ \- I’ve never gotten those whole fuzzy human emotions. Not really my thing.” He says, flickering slightly. “Does seem rather rough on the poor guy, though.” He allows, taking his hand off Ford’s shoulder.

As if on cue, one of the books flips open to a picture of Fiddleford. Ford reaches out for it, but Bill swivels around to hover in front of it. 

“Don’t feel too guilty, alright? Kid’s a sweetheart, he’s going to find some nice guy - or gal - and settle down soon enough. I mean, it’s not like he’s going to wait around _here_ forever!”

“Yeah,” Ford forces a chuckle, his knuckles white. “Of course not.”

“So your heart’s not the best part of you? You’ve still got your brain. It’s a good thing you’re smart, poindexter. Nobody remembers who Einstein married. Tesla? Broken hearts all along his wake, never got married. Died alone, but they still remember his name. Stick with me, Stanford Pines, they’ll remember your name too. But first you have to -” Bill swivels around, multiplying throughout the starscape. “WAKE UP!”

He gasps back to awareness. The lab is dark, and there’s something heavy and soft draped over him. He reaches around to find that it’s a blanket. 

Fidds.

There’s the creak of the door, a light up on the stairs. A whisper. “Ford? Oh, y’re awake. I wanted to check -”

“I’m fine, Fidds.” Ford cuts across him. “Go back to sleep, I’m just going to finish this up.”

“...Alright. Y’get to sleep soon, too, y’hear?”

“Of course.” but he closes the door anyway. 

Ford stares back down at the equations. His head feels like it’s filled with cloying molasses, his fingers feel leaden. The symbols dance on the page, taunting him. He can feel his eyelids being dragged downward -

Need a hand, Sixer?

“Yeah,” He says with a yawn. “Sure, Bill.”

He watches his own eyes glow yellow with a sense of detachment. At least he can get some rest now…

\---a bit more than 30 years later---

“Grunkle Ford?”

“Hmm?”

“Have you ever -”

He doesn’t finish the question, and Ford turns away from the latest project to see Dipper looking down at the upholstery on the wheeled chair he’s sitting on in the lab, a well-chewed pencil in his hand.

“It’s stupid -” Dipper continues, when he sees Ford looking at him. He immediately looks back down at the chair. “It’s just - have you ever, like, liked someone?”

Oh. He should probably have seen this coming, but -

“Well, I -” He coughs and adjusts his glasses. “I’m probably not -”

Dipper looks up at him cautiously from under his hat.

Ford had promised to be honest with him.

Ford laces his fingers together behind his back. “No. I - not in the way you mean, no.” 

“Really?”

_Well aren’t you a piece of work!_

Dipper doesn’t laugh. If anything, he looks - relieved?

“I was just - I was wondering -” Dipper continues. “I - did you ever think you did? Like someone, I mean? But then - it wasn’t like what everybody else meant? Or you were just - “ Dipper shakes his head. “I’m just - I’m being stupid.” 

“No, you’re not.” Ford insists. “And - yes, yes, I did.” 

Dipper looks up hopefully. “So it’s - it’s okay to - to not - like people? like that? Or, I guess, to not know if you do, maybe?”

_You’re quite the freak, Sixer!_

“Well, I never did.” Ford says, sitting down so he’s on eye level with Dipper. “You’re a good person, Dipper. It’s okay to be who you are. You might like somebody tomorrow, or in ten years, or in thirty. And if you never do - “

_You humans seem pretty universally obsessed with making your little couples_

“- you won’t be alone.” Ford says, putting a hand on Dipper’s shoulder and smiling. 

Dipper’s shoulders relax, and he sets the chewed pencil on the desk. “Thanks, Grunkle Ford.” He says with a smile, and Ford lets go of his shoulder. Dipper kicks back in the chair and looks up at the ceiling. “With Mabel and … boys, and with her being on me about Wendy and - I don’t know. Everything she says just sounds so different. I don’t know - I don’t know how I’d talk to her about this.”

Ford stops, halfway through turning back to his experiment. 

_It’s alright with me_

“Dipper,” Ford says, looking back at him. “You have a good heart -”

_your heart’s not the best part of you_

“- and so does your sister. Just because you’re twins, it doesn’t mean you have to feel the same way. If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s alright, but, I think -” Ford swallows and resists the urge to put his hands behind his back. “- even if she doesn’t totally understand what you’re going through, that doesn’t mean she won’t listen.” 

_it’s not like he’s going to wait around here forever_

“She’s your sister.” He says with a smile, well aware of the irony. They were different. They could be different. “When it counts, she’ll have your back.”

“Yeah,” Dipper lets out a huff of laughter. “Guess it would probably take weirder than that to phase Mabel.”

“True. You’ve seen some pretty strange things” Ford says, reaching out to ruffle Dipper’s hair. “You’ll be alright, Dipper.”

Unexpectedly, Dipper reaches out to hug him. “Thanks, Grunkle Ford. Really - I mean it.”

“You’re welcome.” Ford says, patting Dipper on the shoulder.

Dipper sits back in the chair after he lets go of Ford. “I should probably go… talk to Mabel.”

Ford nods. Moments pass. In the silence, the sounds of a preteen slumber party filter down to the basement.

“Maybe not right now.” Dipper says, with some chagrin.

Ford smiles. “Do you want to hear more about dimension 52?”

“Yes please!” Dipper says, wheeling over to him in the chair, and Ford pulls out a notebook.


End file.
